July 5, 2021
Day 61: Lewistown, MT to Stanford, MT
Cool Rolling
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Climbing Today; 1,295 ft Climbing to Date; 91,391 ft
The 03:01 wake-up is wearing me down. Somehow that just seems to come early. There were fireworks last night, but the steady hum of the A/C helped to drown them out. They didn't impact my sleeping, but did bother Doc. After having a sweet roll and yogurt in the room, I rolled out at 03:50 while Doc was loading and charging his battery-powered lights. The only other vehicle on the road besides me was a Lewistown police officer - they drive pickup trucks, because, you know, Montana.
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The morning was forecast to start a bit cool, around 50 degrees. I don't think it got that low, but I was still glad to be wearing my leg warmers, wind jacket, silk balaclava, and long gloves. Despite the forecast calling for adverse wind for us, the wind wasn't bad at all during the first half of today's ride.
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I saw lots of deer this morning, and some antelope as well. I haven't spotted antelope in a couple of days until this morning.
We've been slowly but steadily climbing in the High Plains and are sitting at about 4,300 feet elevation now in Stanford. While it's not all that high, when you combine the elevation with 90+ degree temperatures, the air is relatively thin and you notice the extra effort it takes to get enough oxygen in your lungs while laboring up a steep grade. I'm just sayin', that's all.
I rolled into Hobson, MT and located Grandma Ruby's cafe and had a second breakfast of eggs and corned beef hash. Doc caught up there and we chatted with the locals a bit, then I rolled on while Doc was eating. The wind became more of an issue after this point, and slowed my forward progress noticeably - it was like I was cycling through molasses - I kept looking at my rear tire to see if it was going flat cause I just didn't roll as fast for the pedaling effort as it felt like I should. Of course, that's what a headwind does to you. It was good to see Stanford appear after cresting a hill.
I had lunch in a bar/casino off the highway, and Doc caught up again. After he ate we rolled on down the road to the Sundown hotel. It looked like one of those "Did we make a bad mistake?" kind of hotels, and we had to call to reach the proprietor to get into a room. Once inside, though, it was actually quite nice; big rooms with fridge, microwave, coffee, and wifi. The wifi is a bit weak for uploading videos for this journal, but it works. So all is well there.
We needed to do laundry, get supplies for tomorrow's ride, and I needed to work on this journal. So we gathered up all the dirty clothes and we both rode into town - since all my cycling clothes were in the dirty laundry, I wore my pajamas which are actually an old pair of swimming shorts. After we got the laundry started, we both went across the street to the market and bought food and drinks for tomorrow's ride - and I bought a "Hungry-Man" frozen dinner for tonight as well. Then I returned to the motel with the food items while Doc stayed with the laundry. I worked on this journal, Doc came back with the clean laundry, and we both worked on booking rooms for the next few nights. There's always something to do on a bike tour - it's hard to book very far in advance because you just don't know how long you can stay on schedule before weather or exhaustion or some issue interferes.
I hope you can stay on whatever schedule suits you these days. Tomorrow is 65 miles with the wind against us and a high of 90 degrees, so we need our sleep. The good news is that the wind isn't supposed to be too strong, and we are only climbing about 1,800 feet - so we can do it, but we might get tired :>). Usual video follows for those who need an insomnia cure. Good night all...
Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 3,181 miles (5,119 km)
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